


Flight of Osiris

by bluemoonmaverick



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-13
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-15 13:18:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1306237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemoonmaverick/pseuds/bluemoonmaverick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team pursues Osiris following her departure from Earth, while Jack and Sam cope with the fallout from their time spent as Jonah and Thera.  Follows the events of Reflections on a Broken Surface, though it's not necessary to read that first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story picks up at the very end of Tangent and continues through the events of The Curse, where it then becomes AU. Thanks to MidKnight Rider for the beta.

"Three, two, one. Mark," Sam said, her calm demeanor belying her rising sense of panic. She held her breath while she waited for Jack and Teal'c to clear the X-301, so Daniel could activate the rings. Her momentary relief at finding them alive was now replaced by an almost paralyzing fear, as she realized that they were currently floating, completely unprotected, in the void of space. Technically, she knew the human body could survive up to 45 seconds when exposed to a vacuum, and she had assured Teal'c that they wouldn't die. But in reality, she had no way of knowing for sure.

Sam was suddenly overwhelmed by a rush of emotions, emotions she had carefully repressed since her time on the ice planet, where she had happily shared her life - and her bed - with her commanding officer. In that instant, it occurred to her that she had no desire to continue this life without him in it.

From the back of the scout ship, Sam heard the sound of the rings activating. She turned to watch Jack and Teal'c materialize in the cargo bay, then immediately fall to the floor.

God, what had she done?

oOoOoOo

Jack squatted down in front of the hearth to stoke the fire, then sat back in his favorite armchair to watch the snow falling outside his living room windows. He was still tired, but at least he was home. Fraiser had insisted on keeping him for observation a full 24 hours after his ordeal in the X-301, and it had just about sent him over the edge. At least Teal'c had been there to keep him company - again. Daniel had dropped in for a while, too, which was nice, but the one person he really wanted to see never came by the infirmary.

He took a swig of beer and refused to speculate about what that might mean, concentrating instead on where their mission had gone so terribly wrong. It had been another close one. If Sam and Daniel hadn't been able to find Jacob, if they had arrived just a few minutes later, if the ring transport hadn't worked, if just one of a million other things had gone wrong, he and Teal'c would be still be floating through the vast and empty reaches of space.

He shivered. Damn, that was not how he wanted to go, cold and alone. Especially not alone. He shook his head and took another swig of beer as that thought brought him right back to where he'd started, with one blue-eyed, blond-haired Air Force Major.

As if on cue, a soft knock on his door roused him from his thoughts.

Wondering who on earth would stop by his house in this weather, he opened the door and was shocked to see his Second standing on his porch, a look of uncertainty momentarily crossing her face. "Carter," he said, his voice revealing his surprise at her unexpected arrival.

He moved aside, and she walked into the foyer without saying a word. After closing the door, he turned to face her, but still she didn't say anything. Her silence was beginning to become uncomfortable. "Um, listen...you wanna beer?" he offered.

She stepped into his personal space and looked up at him with her big blue eyes, full of something he couldn't quite place. Desire? Fear? He couldn't tell. "Carter?"

She moved impossibly closer, and Jack held his breath, as she grasped the fabric of his shirt in her fists and raised her face to his. "Jonah," she whispered.

His heart beat wildly, and all of the blood in his body rushed south. Images of their time under the ice swirled in his mind: his rough hands moving across the creamy skin of her abdomen, sweat dampened tendrils of blond hair stuck to her temple, her unfocused eyes rolling back in ecstasy.

He swallowed hard. "Thera?" he asked, barely daring to breathe, and she answered by bringing her lips to his with a degree of passion that momentarily stunned him.

He'd had plenty of time to think while Teal'c kel'noreemed and the glider slowly inched its way across the solar system. She had been the sole focus of his thoughts, and he had replayed their time as Jonah and Thera over and over again in this mind. But he and Sam hadn't spoken of P3R-118 since the night they'd returned from the planet and he'd left her in tears, grieving for the loss of their impossible relationship.

The moment he and Teal'c had shot past Jupiter, he'd thought he would spend the rest of eternity floating through space in a crescent shaped coffin. But somehow they'd made it, and it now occurred to him that he had been given not only a second chance at life, but a second chance at happiness. Everything he'd ever wanted - everything he'd had on the ice planet - he was holding in his arms.

His response to her was immediate. In a single motion, he brought his hands up to cup her face, while he backed her up against the wall and pressed the length of his body to hers. She whimpered as he first deepened the kiss then moved his lips across her jawline and down the long column of her neck.

As they made their way awkwardly down the hallway toward his bedroom, attempting to shed their clothing without breaking contact, his last rational thought was to question how he ever thought he could live without this.

oOoOoOo

Sam gazed out the window and saw that the sky was just beginning to lighten ever so slightly. She rolled over and looked at the man snoring softly beside her. Her gut clenched, as she took in his silvering hair, deeply tanned skin, and chiseled jaw. He was so handsome and everything she could ever wish for in a lover, affectionate and attentive in all respects. Strong and funny, honest and stubborn, kind when he chose to be, and always respectful of her. And every bit her commanding officer. She closed her eyes and tried to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. How had she allowed this to happen?

She had decided once they returned from P3R-118 that there was no way they could continue their romantic relationship and remain with Stargate Command. He had agreed, or at least so he told her. But then she'd thought she'd lost him forever when he dropped to the floor of the scout ship. The moment she saw that he was alive, she'd known she would go to him.

They had made love with an unbridled passion. She had called him Jonah and he had called her Thera, and for a while she had been able to delude herself that they were simply reliving their other life, a life that had no bearing on their relationship here on Earth. But in the hour before dawn, when he'd pulled her to him a second time and begun to love her slowly, purposefully, their hands clasped, his eyes never leaving hers, he'd called her by her real name and asked her to do the same.

That was when she realized that she was just as much in love with Jack as she had ever been with Jonah, maybe even more so. And for that love, she had consciously chosen to forsake her duty.

Quietly, she crept out of bed and began to gather her clothes. She knew it was the coward's way out, but she desperately needed some time to think, alone, without the sight and smell and feel of him distracting her from an objective analysis of the situation.

oOoOoOo

Jacob Carter was not a patient man to begin with, but after waiting up the entire night for his daughter to come home, he was fit to be tied. He had returned to Earth when he'd learned his mission for the Tok'ra was unsalvageable. Though he wasn't pleased they'd missed an opportunity to deal a potentially significant blow to the Goa'uld, he figured he'd at least take advantage of the unexpected time off to visit his children.

The only problem was that his daughter hadn't been home when he'd arrived at her house last night, and she had yet to return. By dawn, he'd worked himself into a dither, and no amount of reason from his symbiote could calm him.

" _She's a grown woman_ ," Selmak said for the hundredth time.

" _That's not the problem_ ," Jacob snapped, though in truth it was, at least in part; he would always think of her as his little girl. " _The problem is that I'm pretty sure I know where she is._ "

He hadn't missed the look Jack and Sam exchanged when the military man had been brought aboard his ship. He'd known for a long time that their feelings for each other were more than just professional. But what he'd seen pass between his daughter and her CO in the cargo bay had convinced him that things had progressed significantly further than the last time he'd seen them.

" _And what of it? You yourself have acknowledged that she could do worse_."

He was just about to reply, when he heard a key turning in the door.

Sam walked into her house and began making her way toward her bedroom but stopped short when she saw her father standing in her living room. Jacob tried not to notice how disheveled she looked.

"You gonna tell me where you've been?" Jacob asked.

" _Subtle_ ," Selmak remarked in his head.

Sam stared at her father for several seconds before responding. "No," she said simply and continued walking toward the back of the house.

"Sam, wait," he said quickly. "I'm just worried about you, that's all."

She stopped and closed her eyes for several seconds. After a moment, she turned to face him. "I appreciate that, Dad, but I'm not sixteen anymore, and I don't have to tell you where I've been. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a shower."

" _Don't do it, Jacob_ ," Selmak warned.

Jacob ignored the Tok'ra. "You were with Jack weren't you?" he asked.

Sam stiffened instantly. "That's none of your business," she replied, effectively confirming his suspicions.

Jacob turned to gather up his things. "Fine," he said. "I'm going to see Mark for a few days."

Her demeanor softened. She sighed. "You don't have to leave, Dad."

"Frankly, if I stay here, Sam, I'm afraid I'll do something I may later regret. I'll be back next week. Maybe we can talk then." He walked to the door and opened it, turning to look at her one last time. "You're playing a dangerous game here, kiddo. I hope you two know what you're doing." With that, he walked out of his daughter's house, closing the door firmly behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place during the events of The Curse.

Sam shifted in her seat, attempting to get comfortable. She supposed she should be grateful they were flying commercial instead of hitching a ride in the back of a military transport, but she wasn't having any luck falling asleep on the overnight flight. Part of her problem, she knew, was the unease she felt at leaving part of her team behind. Everything had happened so fast. One minute, she was in Jack's bed; the next, he was in Minnesota, and she was flying halfway around the world with Daniel and Janet in pursuit of a rogue Goa'uld.

Of course, she'd had the option of joining Jack at his cabin but had turned him down - again. She winced inwardly remembering the look of extreme disappointment that had flashed across his face. She'd wanted to explain why she couldn't go but hadn't gotten the opportunity, as he'd left the base almost immediately with Teal'c in tow.

She sighed. Perhaps it was for the best; she wasn't certain what she would have said to him anyway. Heck, she still wasn't sure why she had left his house before he woke or exactly why she had gone to see him in the first place. All she knew was that she had felt overwhelmed by her feelings for him, feelings that she was finding difficult to reconcile with the fact that she also reported to him.

God, and her father had been waiting for her at her house that morning. Somehow he'd known she'd spent the night with Jack. His warning about their relationship still rang in her ears.

The memory made her squirm, drawing the attention of Daniel, who was seated next to her. "Can't sleep?" he asked in a low voice.

"No," she whispered. "You either, huh?"

"Nope." He was silent for a while, and Sam had just closed her eyes, when he spoke again. "Are you okay, Sam?"

"Yes. Of course," she responded immediately. "Why do you ask?"

He shrugged. "You just seem a little preoccupied lately, that's all." He cleared his throat and looked at the back of the seat in front of him. "Pretty much ever since we got back from P3R-118."

Sam gave him a pointed look. "Really, Daniel, I'm fine."

He turned to face her fully. "It's just...it must have been hard, for you and Jack especially," he said in a low voice.

"Daniel...," Sam warned. She shot a look over his shoulder at Janet, who appeared to be sleeping in the seat across the aisle.

But Daniel was undeterred. "Look, Sam, I don't know how far things went between the two of you, but I think I have a pretty fair idea. And even if you didn't sleep together..."

"Daniel!" she hissed, looking nervously at Janet again.

His eyes got almost as round as his glasses. "Oh god, you did, didn't you?" Sam flushed and quickly looked away, momentarily overcome with a myriad of emotions. Daniel reached out to touch her arm. "Sam, I'm so sorry."

They were both quiet for a few minutes before he spoke again, softly this time. "It's not going to do any good for you to try to ignore it happened, you know." Sam refused to meet his gaze. "Look, I know you and Jack had feelings for each other before. Maybe you can turn it into a good thing..."

She whirled around unexpectedly. "It doesn't work that way. We're military, and he's my commanding officer."

"But..."

"Daniel, please," Sam pleaded, "Can we finish this conversation some other time? If Janet finds out..." Sam's eyes darted once again to Janet's sleeping form.

Daniel looked at her, confused. He knew Janet was her best friend; she should be better equipped than anyone to help Sam deal with this.

Sam took a deep breath, knowing she would need to explain further. "If the CMO of the base knew that two people in the same chain of command had a sexual relationship, she'd have an obligation to report it to General Hammond."

Daniel shook his head. He failed to see how that would matter, especially since he suspected Hammond was already well aware of how Jack and Sam felt about each other.

Sam continued. "Best case scenario, we'd be separated. Worst case scenario, one or both of us would be dishonorably discharged." Particularly since we lied about it, she thought, though she kept that fact to herself.

"Hammond would never let that happen," he said.

"It might not be up to him, Daniel."

"Well, you can't very well be held responsible for something you did when you had no memory of your reporting relationship. You didn't know he was your commanding officer."

Sam let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes. That might be true for their time on P3R-118, but it didn't apply to her decision to spend the night with him just a few days ago. But then, Daniel didn't know about that, and she instantly resolved that he never would. "Look, we really should try to get some sleep. I have a feeling we're in for a long day tomorrow."

"All right," he said finally. "But if you ever want someone to talk to, Sam, you know I'm here." With that he took her hand in his and gave it squeeze.

She smiled at him and squeezed back. "Thanks."

oOoOoOo

Jack cast his line again and glanced sideways at the cell phone battery that was currently resting in the grass, in exactly the same spot he'd tossed it two days ago. He had to admit he was feeling a little guilty about being completely out of touch with the SGC, and he couldn't help but wonder what the other half of his team was doing with their time off. Well, one team member in particular.

As he reeled in his line, he thought back on the horoscope he'd read before he'd left for Minnesota, which had promised he would go on a trip and have a good week. The trip part had certainly happened, but he was still waiting for the good week to materialize. Sure, Teal'c was always pleasant company, but he wasn't his first choice to accompany him to his cabin.

Nope, his first choice had turned him down flat. His first choice had claimed she had a few "projects" she wanted to work on. But then, his _first choice_ hadn't really spoken to him since she'd crept out of his bed in the wee hours of the morning after throwing herself into his arms and fucking him senseless the night before.

With that thought, Jack cast his line with far more force than was advisable, snaring it in the weeds on the other side of the pond. He jerked the line to try and free it but succeeded only in getting it further tangled. Pulling madly on the line now, he let out a string of expletives in a fashion that bordered on the artistic, which in turn earned him the dreaded eyebrow from his Jaffa companion.

Maybe fishing hadn't been such a good idea after all.

"I believe your reaction is inappropriate to the situation, O'Neill," said Teal'c. "Perhaps something other than your line is troubling you?"

Jack fought with his reel. "Nope, everything is just ducky, T."

Teal'c continued to stare at him calmly.

Unable to take his scrutiny any longer, Jack snapped his head up to meet his gaze. "Really. A beautiful day, a couple of beers, a pond with no fish - what more could a guy want?"

Teal'c turned back toward the water. "I believe you want Major Carter."

For a moment, Jack was completely speechless and could do nothing other than gape at the Jaffa. "Don't hold anything back there, T," he said finally.

"Am I incorrect, O'Neill?"

Jack sighed. "No. Damn it." Having given up on untangling his line, he threw his rod and reel onto the dock in frustration. "But she apparently doesn't want me."

"I find that difficult to believe."

"Oh, believe it." Once again, Teal'c gave him the eyebrow, questioning him without saying a word. Jack wondered for a moment how much he should share with his friend. On the one hand, he was Sam's teammate as much as his own; on the other, he wasn't military, and Jack suddenly realized that it might be a relief to confide in someone.

"Look, can I trust you not to say anything?" Teal'c gave him a level look, as Jack ran his hands through his hair and over his face. "Right."

He blew out a large breath, and then the words spilled out of him all at once. "See, we had...um, we had a...thing, on the ice planet. And it was a good thing, really. But then we remembered who we were, and we realized that we couldn't have that thing once we got back, because that would be bad. But then, um, after our deal in the glider, she came over and we, uh, well, we picked up where we left off with the thing from before. And I thought that was good, you know, but now I don't, because then she left, and she hasn't really spoken to me since, and she refused to come up here, so there you are."

He paused, waiting for some words of wisdom from the Jaffa, but Teal'c simply continued to look at him. Maybe he needed some prompting, thought Jack. "So what do you think?" he asked.

"I am confused."

Jack sighed again. "Yeah, you and me both, buddy."

oOoOoOo

Sam bounced off her perch in the back of the Jeep for the hundredth time as they cut across the desert following Osiris' trail. She was bound to be black and blue before this mission was over. But it wasn't just the rough ride that was making her uneasy. She didn't like the idea that they would be facing off with a Goa'uld on his own turf in the middle of nowhere - without Teal'c, and without Jack.

The thought of her commanding officer caused a pain to lance her heart. She was missing him terribly, and she knew he must think her the worst kind of coward for leaving him without explanation. But at that moment, they crested a rise in the sand, and she immediately saw the temple with a vehicle parked in front. Sam shook herself mentally. It was time to focus. She would have to deal with her personal life later.

Sam, Daniel, and Janet entered the temple cautiously, guns drawn, and Sam noticed with some apprehension that Daniel had chosen to arm himself with the dart gun. While she knew it would be preferable to take the Goa'uld alive, she was concerned that trying to do so might give him the upper hand.

As they entered the temple, Sam's attention was immediately drawn to the still form lying prone in the center of the floor. "It's Steven!" Daniel exclaimed, but Sam immediately sensed that he wasn't Goa'uld. Something was wrong. If Osiris wasn't in Steven, where was he?

Just as Daniel asked Steven who had injured him, an attractive red head appeared at the entrance to the temple, claiming responsibility. "Sarah?" Daniel asked, startled. Before Sam could aim her weapon, the woman's eyes flashed, she raised her hand, and Sam was thrown against the wall.

She must have blacked out for moment because when Sam came to, she could see that Janet was slumped unconscious beside her and the Goa'uld was using a ribbon device on Daniel. Instantly, everything clicked into place. Osiris must have taken Daniel's former girlfriend Sarah as host.

Sam was still feeling a little woozy, but she knew she had to do something because she could see that Daniel was near death. Using all of her strength, she pushed herself off of the floor and barreled into Osiris, knocking her to the ground. But Osiris was too quick for her and in a flash she had Sam by the neck. Roughly, she dragged her over to the console lining the back wall of the temple. She focused the ribbon device on the console, and immediately the temple began to shake. Still pulling Sam with her, she stood in the center of the floor and activated a button on the back of her hand device.

As the rings descended around them, Osiris placed her mouth by Sam's ear. "You will make a fine host for my queen," she snarled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/U from here on out.


	3. Chapter 3

As they materialized in their new location, Sam immediately saw that they were inside what appeared to be an ancient version of a Tel'tak. But no sooner had the rings fallen away than Osiris grabbed Sam by the throat and began to squeeze.

"Where is she?" she hissed.

"Who?" Sam was barely able to get the word out of her rapidly constricting windpipe.

"My queen. Isis," she replied through gritted teeth.

Sam gasped for breath. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You are trying my patience. Daniel Jackson has already told me that she is here." She began to lift Sam off the floor. "Now, you can either tell me exactly where she is, or I will tear your planet apart city by city until I find her."

Spots were dancing before Sam's eyes, and she clawed desperately at Osiris' hands. It was no use. Her grip didn't falter. For a split second, she considered lying but quickly realized that if she led Osiris to believe Isis was alive and on Earth, she very well might wreak havoc on the planet.

"She's dead," she said finally, or at least that's what she tried to say. It actually came out as a strangled whisper.

"You lie!" Osiris screeched, but Sam saw doubt in her eyes.

The Goa'uld let up on her throat somewhat, and Sam decided to take full advantage of her momentary reprieve. "She was in a jar...a canopic jar, like yours. The seal was broken. She died in stasis."

"Liar!" Osiris backhanded Sam across the face and sent her reeling. "If she is dead, then you must appreciate that I have no use for you. So, I'll ask you one more time." She picked Sam up off the floor by the throat once again and pressed her to the wall. "Where. Is. She?"

Sam struggled to breathe. "You can kill me if you like, but it won't change the fact that she's dead."

"No!"

In one fluid motion, Osiris threw Sam to the ground and trained her ribbon device on her. Excruciating pain shot through Sam's skull for what seemed like hours, though it was more likely only a few minutes. For a fleeting moment, Sam wondered if this was how she was going to die - alone, at the hand of an unknown Goa'uld. But Osiris apparently had other plans, because just as Sam thought she was going to pass out, the device suddenly shut off.

"Perhaps you will be of some use to me yet," the Goa'uld said with a cold smile.

She turned toward the control panel, leaving Sam whimpering on the floor of the ship. Within seconds, Sam felt the ship begin to move. It was more than her stomach could handle, and Osiris flashed her a murderous look as she vomited all over the golden tiles.

The last thing she remembered before she lost consciousness was the familiar tug of hyperspace.

oOoOoOo

Daniel jogged toward the Tok'ra scout ship that sat uncloaked on the tarmac at Peterson Air Force Base. He was exhausted, having barely slept on the transport from Egypt, but he was anxious to begin looking for Sam. As he approached, he saw that Jacob Carter was already sitting in the front of the ship, presumably having been called back from his trip to California.

He walked inside. "Jacob!" he exclaimed, by way of greeting.

"How long?" was his terse reply.

"What?"

Jacob spun around to face him, and Daniel noticed that his face reflected a grim determination. "How long has it been since Osiris took Sam?"

"Uh..." Daniel squinted at his watch. "23 hours and, um, 16 minutes."

"That's too long," he muttered as he turned back toward the front of the ship, his fingers playing rapidly across the display panel.

"What do you mean?"

"Where are Jack and Teal'c?" he barked over his shoulder, not bothering to answer Daniel's question.

Daniel winced. Walter had been trying to contact them since he'd alerted the SGC of all that had transpired in Egypt, but so far he'd had no luck. "Um...I think they're still, uh, fishing."

A grunt was Jacob's only reply. He placed his hands on the control orb, and the ship immediately rose into the air.

oOoOoOo

Sam's head was pounding, and when she opened her eyes, all she could see was the dim interior of a small, confined space. With some alarm, she realized that her hands were bound above her head and that she was half-sitting, half-lying on the floor beneath some sort of console. As her vision began to clear, however, she saw that she was aboard a spacecraft, currently being piloted by a woman with red, curly hair. She groaned as it all came back to her. Osiris.

Fully awake now, Sam realized that she had a whole host of additional complaints; her jaw ached, presumably from the blow she'd received earlier, and the muscles of her legs and arms practically screamed as she tried to move them into a less awkward position. She gave her restraints a good yank, only to find them securely attached to the control console.

Surprisingly, Osiris didn't even glance her way, her attention focused solely on the display. When Sam looked out the window, she thought she understood why. Something about the light being generated by the hyperspace window didn't seem quite right.

The ship lurched unexpectedly, causing Sam to nearly topple over. She scowled at her captor. "Where are we going?"

"Silence!" Osiris hissed.

The ship lurched again, then suddenly dropped out of hyperspace. Osiris let out a roar of frustration.

"What is it?" Sam asked, knowing she was unlikely to get an answer.

"This ship has been idle too long," Osiris replied, though more to herself than Sam. She brought both fists down on the console and swore. "We are stranded," she growled.

Osiris stood up abruptly and moved to the back of the spacecraft where she began pulling out panels lined with crystals of varying shapes and sizes. Sam watched her for a moment and quickly realized the Goa'uld had no idea what she was doing. She sighed. They would likely be there for a very long time - unless, of course, Sam helped her fix the ship. She leaned her head against the console and considered her options.

On the one hand, being stranded meant there was a better chance her team could catch up to them, assuming they were able to pick up the ship's energy signature and determine which way they were headed. Given the amount of time that had passed, she knew that was a long shot.

On the other hand, they might either be stranded out here indefinitely or, more than likely, captured by another Goa'uld. At that point, any hope of her team being able to track her would be lost. But even more importantly, if she were given access to the control crystals, she might be able to manipulate the ship's communication system to leave a trail of hyperspace breadcrumbs of sorts.

Her mind made up, Sam shifted her position to face Osiris, who was currently swearing up a storm. "I may be able to fix it."

The Goa'uld spun around, her eyes flashing. " _You_?"

Sam shrugged. "You said yourself that we've come a long way over the last several thousand years."

"Do it then!" she sneered, crossing the space between them in two long strides. She began to remove Sam's restraints. "But if I discover that you are deceiving me..."

"Believe me," Sam replied, rubbing her raw wrists. "I have no desire to be a sitting duck any more than you do."

oOoOoOo

Daniel looked out of the viewport to see the Earth turning beneath them. It never ceased to amaze him how peaceful everything seemed from orbit. Unfortunately, his reverie was interrupted by the cursing of the man sitting next to him.

"Damn it! I was afraid of this." Jacob muttered.

"What?"

"I was hoping I might be able to pick up the energy signature from Osiris' ship, but it's too late. They've been gone too long." He threw his hands up in the air in a gesture of defeat. "I have no way of tracking them."

But Daniel refused to believe there was nothing more they could do. "Maybe Selmak knows something about where they might have gone."

"I am sorry, Dr. Jackson, but I do not," the Tok'ra spoke with his distinctive timbre.

"Wait a minute," Jacob said, his voice returning to normal. "I'm picking up something strange." He touched a button and series of faint clicks could be heard over the ship's audio system.

Daniel's eyebrows rose when he recognized the pattern. "Isn't that...?"

"Morse code!" Jacob finished his sentence for him. "That's gotta be Sam!"

Jacob immediately began manipulating the control panel, and Daniel heard the hyperdrive come on line. "Wait, wait!" he exclaimed.

"What? Why?" The irritation in Jacob's voice was unmistakable.

"We need to get Jack and Teal'c."

"No." Jacob shook his head. "We don't need them," he said with finality.

Daniel wasn't sure where Jacob's reluctance to involve the rest of the team was coming from, but experience had proven that they would be much better off with them than without them.

"Listen, Jacob, we still don't know where Osiris is going or what might be waiting for us when we catch her," Daniel pleaded. "We've always worked best as a team. Besides, Jack and Teal'c are going to go looking for Sam anyway. Better that we do it together."

" _Even though you may not like it, you know he's right_ ," Selmak added in his head.

"Fine," the older man snapped, sending disapproving thoughts in his symbiote's direction. "But we have to make it quick."

Jacob piloted the cloaked ship back to Earth, eventually coming to hover over an open, grassy area near Jack's cabin. Daniel ran to the ring platform, and Jacob activated the controls, sending the archeologist to the ground below.

He leaned against the wall next to the platform and crossed his arms, waiting for Daniel's signal. " _For the record, I can't be held responsible for my actions when I see the s.o.b_.," he said to Selmak.

" _I still do not understand why you are so upset with Colonel O'Neill,"_ _the Tok'ra replied. "Clearly, he cares for Samantha a great deal; you have said so yourself. And surely he wouldn't have pursued her without some indication that she would entertain such a relationship_."

Jacob bristled. " _That doesn't matter! As her commanding officer, he should never have allowed it to happen. It was his duty to protect her. Now, they could both be court martialed_."

Realizing the futility of the argument, Selmak decided to let the matter lie for now. " _Perhaps we should concern ourselves with that after we have retrieved her from Osiris_."

Before Jacob could respond, the radio crackled and Daniel's voice reverberated throughout the ship. "Got 'em!" he said.

Jacob activated the rings and walked back to the front of the ship, having no desire to greet his new passengers. "Hold on," he called over his shoulder when he heard the rings retract. He activated the hyperdrive, and the ship flew into open space.

Jack, still in fishing garb, practically accosted Daniel. " _Now_ you wanna tell me what this is all about?" He furrowed his brow and looked around the ship. "Where's Carter?"

"Osiris has her," Daniel replied.

"Who?"

"Osiris. He...she is a Goa'uld." Jack looked at him with a mixture of annoyance and disbelief, and Daniel steeled himself for an explanation he knew was unlikely to be well received. "You remember I went to the funeral of my old professor? Well, it turns out he had discovered two canopic jars, each containing a Goa'uld symbiote: Osiris and Isis."

"Wait a minute, you mean the Egyptian gods?" Jack reacted instantly to Daniel's surprised look. "What? I watch the Discovery Channel sometimes."

"Yes," Daniel confirmed. "Or, at least two Goa'uld who were pretending to be gods."

"False gods," added Teal'c.

Jack nodded. "Like Ra."

"Precisely. Anyway, it seems they had been put in the jars, in stasis, as some sort of punishment thousands of years ago. We confiscated the jars, and when we brought them back to the SGC for examination, we discovered that the jar containing Isis was cracked and she was dead. But the jar that was supposed to contain Osiris was intact - and empty. We think Sarah..."

"Who?"

Daniel took a deep breath. "A research assistant and, uh, an old...friend of mine. We think she opened the jar before we confiscated it, and when she did, Osiris took her as host."

By now Jack was growing visibly impatient. "Daniel, what does this have to do with Carter?"

"We figured out that Osiris, with Sarah as host, fled to Egypt, back to his, er, her temple, either to look for Isis or a way off the planet, or both. Sam and Janet and I followed her there."

" _You what_?" he exclaimed in disbelief.

"We had to stop her, Jack. A rogue Goa'uld, loose on Earth..."

"Without us?"

Daniel held up both hands in a placating gesture. "When we couldn't contact you, Hammond gave us a go to proceed on our own. We found Osiris in Egypt, but we, uh, we couldn't stop her. She grabbed Sam and took off in a Tel'tak of some sort she had hidden in the temple."

There was a long pause as Jack processed everything that he'd been told. He ran his hands through his hair and over his face, as he walked toward the front of the ship. "Do we know where she's going?"

Jacob responded without looking at him. "Sam left us a trail, but I'm having trouble following it. I'm pushing the ship as fast as I can, but Osiris has a faster ship and a good head start. I'm afraid I'm going to lose her."

Jack looked directly at Daniel, and the archeologist couldn't remember the last time he'd seen their leader look so unnerved. "What does she want with Sam?" he asked quietly, and everyone carefully ignored his use of her first name.

"She said something about her making a good host for Isis. But since Isis is dead..." Daniel's voice trailed off when he realized that train of thought was leading nowhere good. If Isis was dead, Osiris would have no reason to keep Sam alive.

Jack's features hardened. "What do we know about this snakehead, Daniel?"

"Well, Osiris was a very important god in Ancient Egypt. He supposedly ruled as Pharaoh -"

"I thought Osiris was a woman," he interrupted.

"No. No, in Egyptian mythology, Osiris was always male; I think he took Sarah as host purely as a matter of convenience. Anyway, Osiris ruled as Pharaoh alongside his wife Isis, who was also his sister. According to legend, he was killed by his brother Set, who cut him into several pieces that he scattered across Egypt. Isis, assisted by her sister Nephthys, who also happened to be Set's wife -"

"Wait a minute, Daniel." Jack was clearly exasperated. "You just said Isis was Osiris' sister, which would make Nep-knees his sister, too..."

"Right. Sorry. Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys were all siblings, the children of Nut and Geb. Osiris was married to Isis, and Set was married to Nephthys. And to make things even more confusing, Nephthys and Osiris were also lovers. In fact, some myths claim he fathered a child by her, a god by the name of Anubis."

Jack's eyebrows shot to the top of his head. "Okay, now that's twisted."

"Indeed," said Teal'c.

Daniel nodded. "Yes, well, incest was common among the ancient Egyptian gods. Anyway, as I was saying, Set killed Osiris and cut him into several pieces that he then scattered around Egypt. Isis, assisted by Nephthys, gathered the pieces together in an attempt to bring Osiris back to life. She was able to find all the pieces, save one, the phallus, which supposedly was eaten by a fish."

Jack grimaced. "Whoa. Bummer."

"Right, although legend has it that Isis created a phallus out of clay and then brought Osiris back to life long enough to father a child, Horus. However, Isis' power wasn't strong enough to bring Osiris back to life permanently, so he was forced to return to the underworld. Ultimately he became god of the underworld, or the Duat, as it was called."

It was Jacob's turn to interrupt Daniel now. "Wait," he said, turning in his chair to look at Daniel. "What did you say?"

"That Osiris was god of the underworld..."

He shook his head. "No, what did you call it?"

"Duat?"

Jacob turned back to the console, and Jack walked over to join him. "What is it?" he asked the former General.

But it was Selmak who replied. "If Osiris' ship remains on its current trajectory, it will eventually intersect this binary solar system." He pointed to a star chart on the display screen.

"Well, that's fascinating Selmak, but..."

"There is an uninhabited planet in that system known as Duat," the Tok'ra replied.

Daniel snapped his fingers. "That has to be it. That must be where she's going."

"You might as well settle in," Jacob told them. "It'll take a few days to get there."

Jack settled himself in the co-pilot's seat beside Jacob, while the others headed toward the back of the ship to begin sorting through the supplies that Daniel had thought to bring for the team. Jack let out a long sigh and looked sideways at his Second's father, who continued to stare straight ahead without saying a word. The silence quickly became uncomfortable, and it was clear to Jack that something was seriously wrong.

"So, how long...?" Jack began, trying to make small talk.

Jacob's response was clipped. "I've already told you. A few days."

Jack looked carefully at Jacob and could see that his jaw was clenched. "Is everything okay, Jacob?"

"No, Jack. Everything is most definitely not okay," he spat. "In case you weren't paying attention, my daughter has been abducted by a Goa'uld with a wacky family history and a gender identity crisis." Finally, he turned to glare at the military man, his tone accusatory. "Where the hell were you anyway?"

Selmak's voice sounded in his head. " _It was not his fault, Jacob_."

Jack looked at Jacob as though he'd struck him. "We were supposed to be on leave."

"And yet half of your team was chasing a Goa'uld while you were...fishing."

Jack's next words were colored by a mixture of anger and guilt. "Look, I didn't know..."

But Jacob was undeterred. "Seems to me that you've been derelict in your duty lately, Colonel. In more ways than one."

" _This will not help Samantha_!" Selmak warned.

Jack stared at Jacob, hardly believing what he'd heard. He felt his blood begin to boil, and he looked at the former General through narrowed eyes. His next words were low and measured. "What's that supposed to mean, Jacob?"

But Jacob Carter was not a man accustomed to backing down. "I think you can figure it out, Jack."

Jacob turned back to the control console, but Jack was momentarily unable to move, stunned by his words. Slowly, he rose from his seat and strode toward the rear of the ship. Daniel and Teal'c watched him carefully, having heard the exchange and not sure what to expect.

Without warning, Jack shoved all of their gear off the ledge on which it had been sitting, sending it crashing to the floor.

"Jack..." Daniel started.

"Not now, Daniel!" he barked in reply.

Daniel moved to follow Jack, but Teal'c placed a restraining hand on his shoulder.

In a far corner of the ship, Jack slid down the wall and sat on the floor, his knees drawn up and his head in his hands, trying to shut out the rest of them. As mad as he was at Jacob, he had to admit he was right, and he wondered just how much the other man knew. Had Sam confided in him?

Jeez, he'd fucked up, and good. Despite how he felt about her, he should never have gotten involved with his Second. They should have called it quits after their return from P3R-118, like they'd planned. He never, ever should have entertained the idea that they could somehow be together.

No, their relationship had clearly put her in danger, and it was his fault. If he hadn't slept with her...if he hadn't been hurt when she left and felt the need to get away, maybe he could have been there for her, as he was supposed to be - as her commanding officer. And maybe then he could have prevented this fiasco.

He knew at that moment that if anything happened to her, he'd never forgive himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daniel discusses the myth of Isis and Osiris in the episode The Curse. He left out the bit about the phallus, but it is part of the actual mythology, just in case you were wondering. Also according to Egyptian mythology, Osiris and Nephthys are the parents of Anubis.


	4. Chapter 4

A change in the sound of the ship roused Sam from her uncomfortable sleep on the floor of the tel'tak. She struggled to stand, her hands still chained to the console. Once on her feet, Sam observed a dark green planet rapidly growing larger in the viewscreen. As they neared the surface, she saw that the planet was covered almost completely in foliage, with a low lying mist swirling intermittently above the moss covered tree line.

"We have arrived," Osiris said, with a thin smile.

Sam barely had time to register the presence of the zat before she was enveloped in a web of blue electricity. She fell to the floor instantly.

When she woke, Sam found herself chained once again, though this time she was bound at both her wrists and ankles. Perhaps even more disturbing was the fact that she was totally nude. She tested her restraints and found that they were securely fastened to the ceiling and floor.

Her discomfort grew as she took in her surroundings. She was in a large, open room, gilt in the traditional fashion of the Goa'uld. She gasped when she saw a table sitting to one side, holding various implements of torture, including a pain stick that was prominently displayed in the center. Quickly averting her gaze, she tamped down on her fear as best she could.

But it was an alabaster canopic jar, very much like the ones that had contained Osiris and Isis, that captured Sam's attention. The face on this jar was different than the others, definitely feminine, with something that looked like a bowl on top of a pedestal sitting on the head of the goddess. Sam wondered briefly which Goa'uld occupied this vessel, before it occurred to her that she most likely did not want to find out.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of Osiris from a side door. The Goa'uld approached her slowly, raking her naked form up and down with her eyes. She began to walk around her in a slow circle, like a cat toying with a mouse caught in a trap.

"You are indeed a beautiful woman," she purred, her voice resonating with the symbiote's deep timbre. She reached up to touch her cheek. "A fair face." Looking at her appreciatively, she began to trail her fingers down her neck toward her chest.

Sam refused to meet her gaze and began reciting the periodic table, anything to keep her mind off her increasingly horrific situation. Osiris, though, was undeterred. She palmed one breast, continuing her assessment. "Full breasts." Her fingers drifted lower. "Narrow waist...round hips...smooth skin." She spread her hand over the curve of Sam's hip and brought her lips to hers.

Sam turned her face away, repulsed, but Osiris merely laughed. It was an evil sound. "You hate me, and yet still you respond to my touch," she said, her voice full of contempt. The Goa'uld moved her lips to Sam's ear. "Let me show you."

Sam tried to slow her heartbeat, but because she was completely restrained and had no idea what Osiris might do next, she was finding it difficult to keep her rising panic under control.

"Like this," the Goa'uld whispered and slowly licked just inside her ear, blowing on the wet skin. She smiled wickedly as Sam jerked her head away but shivered involuntarily. "And this." She cupped her breast again, then suddenly pinched and rolled her nipple, causing Sam to gasp and her nipple to harden.

Osiris smirked, then placed her cheek on Sam's. With her eyes closed, she ran her hand down her abdomen and over the soft curls at the apex of her thighs. "And this," she breathed, slipping a single finger between her folds.

"Stop it!" Sam yelled. She struggled desperately against her restraints to no avail, while Osiris simply chuckled and watched her squirm. Refusing to allow the assault to continue, Sam did the only thing she could. She spit in the Goa'uld's face.

Osiris instantly recoiled, her eyes flashing. "Impudence!" she roared. She picked up the pain stick and without warning touched it to Sam's waist. The effect was instantaneous. She watched coldly as Sam screamed in agony, a white light emanating from her mouth and eyes.

Finally, she pulled the stick away and tapped it in the palm of her hand. "A crude implement, but effective, particularly for teaching obedience." She leaned in toward Sam, who had gone limp in her restraints. "If I weren't trapped in this body, I'd show you what a _god_ could truly do to you," she hissed. She walked over to the table and picked up the canopic jar. "But I will rectify my plight soon enough, and as host to my lover Nephthys, you will soon learn to appreciate me fully."

"No," Sam whispered, as she realized then that the jar must contain Nephthys' symbiote.

Osiris twisted the head of the jar to open it. Air hissed out of the opening, and Sam watched, terrified, as the Goa'uld stared into its depths. "Time to wake, my love," she sang. But as the seconds ticked by and nothing happened, Osiris' smile faded. She peered more closely into the jar. "What is this sorcery?" she whispered.

Slowly, she tilted the jar, and a thin stream of sand poured from the opening.

"No!" Osiris shrieked. She threw the jar to floor where it shattered into a thousand pieces, then picked up the pain stick and turned back toward Sam, a look of pure fury on her face.

oOoOoOo

All was quiet aboard the scout ship, and the interior lighting was dim, but Daniel was still having a difficult time sleeping. He glanced around their small group. Jacob was at his position at the control orb, the only one who was not attempting to rest. Teal'c was kel'noreeming in one corner, while Jack sat in the other, eyes closed, arms crossed over his chest, and a deep scowl lining his face. Daniel sighed. That expression had been there pretty much since he'd learned that Sam was in the hands of Osiris.

Daniel shifted for the hundredth time in an attempt to get comfortable but had little success. Deciding that it was no use, he got up and took a seat in the co-pilot's chair next to Jacob.

"Are you unable to sleep, Dr. Jackson?" Selmak asked, his deep voice resonating in the small space.

Daniel looked at the Tok'ra. "Yes. I'm worried about Sam. And Sarah."

"Sarah is the woman Osiris took as host, no? I assume you knew her?"

"Ah, yeah. You could say that." Daniel looked down at his hands. He couldn't help but feel partially responsible for what had happened to his former girlfriend. "We dated several years ago, but things didn't, ah...they didn't work out."

"I am sorry, Dr. Jackson," the Tok'ra replied, but Daniel wasn't sure whether he meant he was sorry things hadn't worked out between them or that she had been taken as host. Perhaps both.

He watched the hyperspace light show outside the window for several minutes, deep in thought. His stomach clenched as he thought about how confused and terrified Sarah must be, and he wondered if Osiris was as vicious as all of the other Goa'uld they'd encountered. "Did you know Osiris, Selmak?"

"I did not. He was placed in stasis before my time. However, he is not unknown to the Tok'ra."

"Can you tell me what you know?" Daniel asked quietly.

For the first time that night, Selmak hesitated ever so slightly before responding. "I'm afraid it is not good. According to our history, he was an extraordinarily cruel Goa'uld, who took great pleasure in tormenting others. It was thought that overuse of the sarcophagus had driven him mad."

"No wonder Jacob is so upset."

Selmak turned to face the archeologist. "I have not shared this information with Jacob, and I think it best to keep what we know to ourselves." He glanced meaningfully at Jack.

Daniel furrowed his brow. "But haven't you just told him?"

"Jacob is asleep and is therefore not privy to our conversation."

"You can do that?" Daniel asked, surprised. He had no idea that a Tok'ra symbiote could hold a private conversation without his host knowing what was discussed.

"I can," he replied, smiling ever so slightly.

Daniel considered this for a moment, when a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Selmak, do you think you could do something about this rift between Jack and Jacob?"

Selmak shook his head. "I have tried to talk with him about the matter, but he will not listen to reason, at least not when it comes to his daughter. He fears Colonel O'Neill will hurt her, and he has channeled that fear into an irrational anger toward him."

Daniel sat up, feeling somewhat indignant on his friend's behalf. "But Jack would never hurt Sam. He lov-" He caught himself and stole a quick glance at Jack, who thankfully appeared to be sleeping. He lowered his voice. "I'm pretty sure he loves her."

"I believe you are correct, Dr. Jackson. But so far, I have been unable to convince Jacob of that fact."

oOoOoOo

Osiris looked with disgust at the unconscious woman hanging from the ceiling by her wrists. She had passed out yet again, and just as things were getting interesting, too. Still, she had to admire the fact that the woman was still alive. When she had first discovered that Nephthys was dead, she had lost all control and was certain that she had killed her. But miraculously the woman had recovered, and Osiris was more cautious in her ministrations now. After all, she could hardly afford to lose her only plaything.

She threw the pain stick on the table. There was little pleasure to be had with an unresponsive subject. She supposed now was as good a time as any to determine what had happened to her empire over the past several thousand years.

She crossed the room and held her hand up to the wall. As her palm device began to glow, the wall split down the middle and retracted, revealing a large communication orb that had previously been concealed. Quickly, she entered the appropriate code into the small control panel underneath and held her breath, wondering if it would still work after all these years.

She smiled broadly, as a familiar face filled the round screen. "Horus," she said, by way of greeting.

"Who dares call me by that name?" The man roared.

She lifted her chin. "It is I, Osiris, risen from the dead!"

The man smirked. "If you are indeed Osiris, then it would appear you've misplaced your manhood yet again." At that, he began to laugh.

Osiris' eyes flashed with anger. "The timing of my awakening was not of my choosing, and I was forced to take this woman as host. But do not misjudge me by my outward appearance. I am indeed Osiris." With that, she held up a golden amulet in the shape of a stylized eye. It began to glow faintly.

"The Eye!" The man exclaimed in wonder. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "How did you come to possess it?"

"You gave it to me, after I saved you from Setesh."

The man's eyes widened, and he gaped at her. "Osiris?"

"It is I," she confirmed triumphantly. "I am pleased to see you alive, Horus."

The man recovered from his shock quickly. "I have not gone by that name in several millennia. I am now known as Heru'ur, and if you are indeed Osiris, then we have much to discuss." He lowered his voice. "Many of our kind have fallen."

"So I have been told."

Heru'ur briefly scanned his surroundings, as though he was worried he was being watched. When he spoke, his voice was low and conspiratorial. "The timing of your return is fortuitous. Apophis is attempting to establish himself as Supreme System Lord."

"Then we shall destroy him, and together we will rule galaxy," Osiris said, as though they were discussing the weather.

Heru'ur smirked at her response, but he was momentarily distracted by the woman chained behind her, who had begun to stir. He peered at her closely. "That woman behind you. She is familiar. Let me see her face."

"She is no one," Osiris replied. "A Tau'ri host I had procured for Nephthys, who is dead like so many others."

But when Osiris lifted Sam's head toward the communication orb, Heru'ur's eyes flashed instantly. "On the contrary. You have captured a powerful member of the Tau'ri scourge who have been in no small part responsible for the demise of our brethren these past several years."

"Then I shall kill her immediately." Osiris let Sam's head drop, and she raised her palm to her forehead.

"No!" Heru'ur snapped. "If she is there, the remainder of her team is likely not far behind. You must keep her intact, Osiris. She can be used to lure the others. There are many Goa'uld who would pay a high price to have them alive, more than enough to finance a successful campaign against Apophis."

"Excellent," Osiris replied, and she and Heru'ur spent the better part of the next hour laying out their strategy. By the time they ended their communication, Osiris was feeling better than she had since her awakening.

Invigorated, she picked up the pain stick and once again turned toward her captive, who was just regaining consciousness. Though she had promised the keep the woman alive, there was no reason she couldn't enjoy herself in the meantime. She would simply have to exercise some restraint.

Before she could use the weapon, however, she was startled by a whispering sound coming from the corner of the room. At the same moment, she caught sight of something dark moving across her peripheral vision. But when she turned in that direction, she saw nothing other than an empty corner. A chill crawled up her spine.

"Who is there?" she demanded.

No one answered, but Osiris could not ignore the sudden feeling that a presence, far more malevolent than she, was somewhere near.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Eye of Osiris was referenced in the series, one of six eyes that were ultimately acquired by Anubis. In the episode Full Circle, Anubis was trying to get his hands on the Eye of Ra in order to complete the collection and power his superweapon.
> 
> The reference to Horus giving his Eye to Osiris for saving him from Setesh is straight out of Egyptian mythology, as is the transformation of the name Horus to Heru'ur, which literally means "Horus the Elder."


	5. Chapter 5

Sam must have lost consciousness yet again because when she woke up, she was no longer chained by her ankles and wrists in the golden room. Her momentarily elation at having complete freedom of movement was quickly quashed, however, when she shifted to take in her surroundings, only to find that even the smallest change in positioning caused almost unbearable pain.

Almost instantly, she knew that, as in any situation in which she was captured, the first order of business was to assess her physical situation.

Where had she learned that? It must have been something they had taught her in the mines. But that didn't make sense. No, it was her military training. That's right; she was in the military. She was a Major in the United States Air Force, and she had never worked in the mines. Or had she? Maybe she had worked there before she joined SG-1. God, she couldn't think clearly. Regardless, it had been ingrained in her that she should start her assessment with her immediate surroundings.

Reluctant to move, she swept the space with her eyes. She was lying on a stone floor in a small, dark room that also seemed to be made of rough hewn stone. Though there were no windows or other sources of illumination in the cell, ambient light from what was most likely a torch filtered through the cracks in the door. The walls glistened in the flickering light, and she was fairly sure they were damp. Underground, she thought. She must be underground.

Of course she was underground. Her planet was experiencing an ice age. She'd been underground her whole life. But then, why did she remember the sun, and the sky, and the Stargate? She was so confused.

Focus, Thera, she told herself. She needed to focus. The next step was to assess her captors. Well, there was only one, at least that she knew of. That was good. What wasn't good was that she was fairly sure that her captor was bat shit crazy. She had used that device on her, the pain stick she'd called it, over and over again. In fact, the last time she'd picked it up, she was fairly certain she wouldn't survive the experience. But something had distracted her captor; something had disturbed her, so much so that she had decided to forgo their little torture session, and she'd drug her here instead.

Okay, the final step was to assess herself. She knew that she was seriously injured, but she didn't know how. Carefully, she began moving her limbs. Nothing appeared to be broken. Though her head was pounding, she raised it to look at her naked body. She was covered with burns. Had they come from the steam? She could remember an explosion and broken pipes. Jonah had been injured, but his injuries were different.

No, no, that was a different time, she admonished herself. Her injuries had come from her captor, Osiris. Osiris had used the pain stick on her.

She let out a huff of air and rolled onto her back. She kept getting everything confused, and slipping in and out of consciousness was not helping matters. When was the last time she'd eaten? When was the last time she drank? She couldn't remember. Suddenly, her thirst was overwhelming.

Damn it, Thera! she thought. She could not let the mental affects of her captivity be her undoing. That was the second order of business: to maintain a survival attitude and stay positive. And it was perhaps just as important as attending to her physical needs.

She knew that in order to survive this ordeal, she needed to stay mentally and physically active. Physical activity was going to be a challenge, at least in the short term. She was battered and burned, and she could barely move. But at least she had her mind. It was her greatest asset. After all, she was smart; she was a scientist, an engineer. She was good with numbers. She would start reciting the prime numbers. Yes, that would keep her mind occupied.

Now, all she needed to do was stay positive. She knew that she'd been in worse situations, but then she'd always had her team; she'd always had _him_. She shook her head. Even though Jonah wasn't with her now, she knew he'd come for her. He'd always come for her. He'd keep her safe. Wrapped in his arms, in their secret spot behind the braziers, he hold her and make sure the crazy woman never hurt her again.

She was just drifting off, when suddenly she felt a chill, a presence in the cell. Her senses went on high alert, and she knew then that something was watching her; something was coming for her, and it wasn't Jonah. She cried out for him, but he didn't answer. He wasn't there. He couldn't save her.

Slowly, she crawled across the floor of the cell, her body screaming with every move. She had to get away! Finally reaching her destination, she pulled her legs up to her chest as an utter despair wash over her.

Cowering in the corner, she waited for the inevitable.

oOoOoOo

The scout ship dropped out of hyperspace next to an evergreen world. Jacob cloaked the craft immediately and positioned it in orbit over the planet.

"So where are they?" Jack asked, walking to the front of the ship with Daniel and Teal'c.

"I don't see anything on the surface yet, but I'm picking up a concentrated energy reading...here." Jacob pointed to a red area on the 3-D map on the view screen. "That must be it."

He piloted the craft toward the area indicated on the screen, but when he flew low over the surface, all they could see were trees packed tightly together in every direction. "Damn it! I can't land," he said. "We're going to have to keep the ship in orbit and ring down."

Once back in orbit, both Jack and Jacob headed toward the ring platform.

When he realized that they were walking in the same direction, Jacob stopped abruptly and put his hands on his hips. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked Jack.

Jack didn't stop until he got to the ring platform. He spun on his heel to face Jacob, holding both index fingers in the air. "I'm going to get Carter."

"Someone needs to stay with the ship," Jacob replied matter-of-factly.

"I thought that'd be you."

Jacob frowned. "She's my daughter!"

"Yeah, well, she's my-" Jack stopped short, unsure exactly how to finish that sentence.

Unfortunately, Jacob picked up on his hesitation immediately. He cocked his head  
and furrowed his brow. "She's your _what_? Exactly what is she to you, Jack?" But Jack had no idea what to say, and Jacob gave a curt nod. "That's what I thought."

Jack recovered quickly, his next words laced with anger. "Look, you said yourself that I've been derelict in my duty, that I should have been there when she got abducted. So I'm sure as _hell_ not going to sit on this ship and let you go down there alone."

"I won't be alone," Jacob replied smartly. "I'll have Daniel and Teal'c with me."

Jack and Jacob continued to glare at each other, until Teal'c finally broke the uncomfortable silence. "I will wait with the ship."

Jack's head whipped around to look at the Jaffa. "T?" When Teal'c simply stared at him, he turned toward Daniel.

The archeologist held up both hands. "Don't look at me. I'm going. I need to be there for Sarah."

"Fine, then," Jack capitulated. "Let's get this over with."

The three of them stepped onto the ring platform, and Teal'c activated the transporter. Within moments, they were standing on the surface of the planet, such that it was. Ankle deep water covered their feet, and everywhere they looked were huge trees covered in moss.

Jack groaned and pulled his foot out of the muck to watch it dripping with a bright green sludge. "Teal'c put us down in the middle of a swamp!"

"Man, he's going to be sorry he didn't come," said Daniel. "This planet looks like Degobah."

"What?" snapped Jack.

"You know. Yoda's planet...in _The Empire Strikes Back_."

Jack reluctantly put his foot back down. "Well, whatever it is, it's disgusting. And correct me if I'm wrong, Daniel, but shouldn't there be some kind of structure around here?"

"The energy readings are strongest over here," Jacob called from several feet away.

Jack and Daniel joined the Tok'ra, and all three turned around in circles, looking in vain for a pyramid or some other type of building.

"Okay, what now?" asked Jack.

Jacob was insistent. "Keep looking. It's got to be around here somewhere."

"Wait a minute...of course!" Daniel snapped his fingers. "Osiris was lord of the Duat, the underworld. The structure must be underground."

Jack was losing what little patience he had. "So how do we get down there?"

"There's got to be a way," said Jacob. "Look around."

"That's what I've been doing," muttered Jack.

"Found it!" Daniel was pointing to what appeared at first glance to be small rock sticking up out of the muck. "Looks like another ring transporter."

The three of them gathered around the rock. It was clearly a punch pad, containing two long rows filled with Goa'uld symbols.

Jack blew out a large breath. "Alright, what's the combination?"

Daniel grasped his chin and studied the display. "Well, the good news is it looks like we only have to choose two symbols. The bad news is that there are thousands of possible combinations."

"We don't have that kind of time." Jack brought up his gun.

"Wait, wait!" yelled Daniel. "What, are you going to do, Jack? Blast your way down?"

"Maybe."

"There has to be a logical solution." Daniel rubbed his forehead. "Let's see, Osiris was always shown holding a crook and flail."

He depressed the corresponding symbols, but nothing happened.

Daniel thought for a moment. "Okay...the hieroglyphic symbols for Osiris were the throne and the eye."

He tried those, but still nothing happened.

Jack's tone indicated just how frustrated he was becoming. "You know I can think of another way to send you to the underworld, Daniel..."

"Of course! That's it!" Daniel grasped Jack excitedly by both shoulders.

"What's it?"

The archeologist was talking quickly now. "In order to gain entrance to the underworld, Osiris weighed the deceased's heart against a feather..."

With that, Daniel hit those symbols, and the unmistakeable sound of the ring platform activating rent the otherwise still swamp. Quickly, the three men gathered inside the circle they could now see glowing beneath the water.

"Nice," Jack said, as the rings surrounded them.

In a flash, they were gone.

oOoOoOo

Back on the scout ship, Teal'c was sitting at the control panel when an alarm began to sound. He calmly switched the display from the planet's surface to the surrounding space. What he saw caused the normally staid Jaffa to jump to his feet. Immediately, he tried to contact the group on the planet's surface, but he received no response to his urgent hail.


	6. Chapter 6

Cowering in the corner of the cell, Sam began to lose all track of time. Something was in there with her - she was sure of it. She could smell the stench of death and decay surrounding it, and she could feel its cold, unfeeling eyes upon her, watching and waiting.

Whatever it was hadn't made a move against her yet, however. She tried to stay diligent, certain that if she slipped toward unconsciousness, the thing would surely attack. But it was a constant battle to stay awake, one she knew she was losing. Her injuries and exhaustion were simply more than she could handle.

She began to drift.

_It was dark in the barracks, but she couldn't sleep. The memory of their earlier coupling, frantic and passionate, was too fresh in her mind. Though she had really only known him a handful of days, it seemed as though it was something she had wanted forever, that they were destined to be together._

_Her desire kindled anew, she tried to look at the man sleeping just a few bunks over. His features were difficult to discern in the dim light, so before she even realized she had moved, she found herself standing by his bed. She studied his handsome face, completely peaceful in sleep, and reached out her hand to trace the line of his jaw. He stirred slightly but didn't wake._

_Quietly, she undid the drawstring of her pants and let them fall to the floor. She hitched up her long shirt and crawled on top of the bed, straddling him. He woke instantly and grabbed her by her hips. "Shhhhhh," she said, then bent down and placed her lips on his, slowly increasing the pressure, her tongue teasing and tasting._

_She pulled back to find him looking at her with an untamed heat. "Thera," he whispered, his voice low and rough, her name more statement than question. She answered by moving her hips against him and bringing her lips to his once more. He hardened beneath her, and she moaned his name before giving one last passing thought to the wisdom of finishing what she'd started in the middle of the sleeping barracks..._

A darkness passed over her battered form, and she shuddered in her sleep.

_She stood in Brenna's utilitarian office, staring not at Jonah but her commanding officer, her own sense of longing and loss reflected on his face. "Let's go home," he said quietly, before turning and walking out the door toward the Stargate._

_When she rounded the corner behind him, she saw him standing in front of an active wormhole. He gestured for her to join him, then stepped into the shimmering event horizon. Fear welled up in her chest unexpectedly, and she quickly made her way up the steps to follow him. But just as she reached the top, the wormhole winked out of existence._

_"Jonah!" she cried, though he was already gone._

She woke suddenly with the certainty that he had left her and was never coming back. She let out a sob as her heart was filled with an unimaginable despair.

It was at that moment that she realized the thing was upon her.

oOoOoOo

When the rings retracted, Jack, Daniel, and Jacob had their weapons ready, though there was little need. The room in which they found themselves was completely empty, save the traditional tacky Goa'uld decor.

"Think she knows we're here?" Jack asked, looking around the apparently abandoned space.

Jacob nodded. "You can count on it."

"So what now?"

Jacob crossed the room to look at a dimly lit display on the wall. "It is as I suspected," Selmak replied. "The Goa'uld have little imagination. This facility is laid out very much like a hak'tak."

Jack walked up beside him and took in the schematic in one glance. "Which means the snake is on the pel'tak," he said. "Let's move out." He readied his P90 and began heading toward the center of the structure.

Jacob followed, but Daniel hesitated. "Jack," he said, and the military man stopped and spun on his heel.

"Daniel?"

"She's got Sarah, Jack," he said, somewhat uncomfortably.

"She's got _Carter_ , Daniel," the military man replied forcefully, trying without much luck to keep the irritation out of his voice.

Daniel took a deep breath. "I know. It's just...if we can do this without killing Sarah..."

"Even if we capture Osiris, Dr. Jackson," Selmak interrupted, "there is little chance we would be able to recover your friend."

Daniel closed his eyes briefly. "I realize that. But if we don't have to kill her, I'd appreciate it if we didn't."

Selmak inclined his head, but Jack merely stared at the archeologist, his face unreadable. "No promises," he said finally, then continued out of the room.

They made their way stealthily through the underground facility, though it seemed there was little need; the entire structure appeared to be abandoned, and many places were completely dark, as if no one had been there in many years.

Selmak explained that at one point in the distant past, the base was probably filled with Jaffa and even a few lesser Goa'uld. But Osiris had been out of the loop for a long time, and there was little doubt that they were all gone now. Still, he felt confident that she was already making plans to rebuild her empire.

After several twists and turns, they quietly crept up on what was obviously the control room for the structure. Jack used his mirror to look around a corner and could just see Osiris working furiously at a display panel. He indicated to the others that he'd go first, followed by two of them. He hefted his P90 and whipped around the corner into the room.

"Don't move," Jack barked. He pointed his gun straight at Osiris' heart and was quickly flanked by Daniel and Jacob. His next words were low and dangerous. "Where is she?"

Osiris turned to face him with narrowed eyes, then smiled ever so slightly. "You will find out soon enough."

Suddenly, a dozen Jaffa entered the room from various directions, surrounding them, with staff weapons at the ready. Jack swore to himself and debated whether he should take the shot anyway. It was only his fear that such an action might mean the death of them all, including Sam, that stopped him. Reluctantly, he lowered his gun, and Daniel and Jacob followed suit.

He wondered where the hell Osiris had found so many Jaffa in such a short period of time. His question was answered, however, when Heru'ur walked through an open doorway, a smirk plastered across his smarmy face. He took his place beside Osiris.

"I've waited a long time for the opportunity to exact my revenge on the infamous SG-1," he said.

oOoOoOo

"Hey!" Jack protested, as Heru'ur's minion gave him a particularly rough shove into the cell behind Daniel and Jacob. He was still glaring at the Jaffa, when Jacob's strangled cry caused him to whip his head around to desperately search the dark space for the source of his distress.

"Sam? Oh, god, Sam!" Jacob rushed to the far corner of the cell.

His heart pounding, Jack immediately began to follow but stopped short when his eyes adjusted to the dim light and he saw his Second, _his Sam_ , naked and bleeding and cowering in the corner. For a moment, he was completely overcome with a series of raw emotions: overwhelming relief first, followed quickly by fury, which was slowly eclipsed by an almost debilitating concern for her condition. His stomach clenched when he realized she didn't recognize them, and he knew that if he wanted to continue to function, he couldn't think about what it must have taken for her to get to that point.

"No! Stay away!" she cried, as Jacob approached, her voice panicky. She attempted to crawl further into the small space at the back of the cell.

"Sam," Jacob said with a broken voice, close to tears. Carefully, he knelt down next to his daughter.

She desperately tried to scramble away, but she was trapped by the same corner in which she'd sought refuge earlier. "Don't touch me! Get away!"

"Sam, please," Jacob said, softly pleading with her. "It's me. It's your father." He reached out to lay his hand on her head.

"No!" She cringed away from his touch and pulled herself into a tighter ball. "Jonah," she sobbed quietly.

Jack and Daniel looked at each other, both stunned. In an instant, Jack was by her side. He knelt down next to Jacob. The older man gave him a questioning glance but moved over to give him some room. Jack leaned toward Sam.

"Thera?" he asked gently.

For the first time, she peeked past her hands to look at the man kneeling in front of her. "Jonah?"

Jack tentatively touched her arm. "I'm here."

She jumped into his arms and clung to him desperately. He pulled her tightly to his chest, laying his head on top of hers as she began to cry.

"You didn't leave me?" she asked, the disbelief in her voice causing him physical pain.

"I'd never leave you," he whispered in reply.

Jacob stood and backed off a bit. At that moment, he thought he felt something brush past him, something decidedly evil. He shivered, but quickly dismissed the experience, as his attention was consumed by the interaction between his daughter and her commanding officer.

Jack tenderly kissed Sam's head, then took his jacket and draped it around her shoulders. Jacob watched them for awhile, then turned away, rubbing his hands over his face and trying to sort through his conflicting feelings. He was relieved that Sam had responded to at least one of them, but he was less than thrilled that it was Jack. And he had no clue what was going on between them.

"What the hell is that all about?" he asked Daniel quietly. "Who's Jonah?"

Daniel considered just how much he should tell him. "You know how we all had our minds stamped with different memories on P3R-118?"

Jacob nodded. "Yeah."

"Jonah is the name they gave Jack. Sam was Thera." Daniel hesitated. "They didn't remember who they really were. Even after Teal'c and I began to suspect the truth, they refused to believe they weren't Jonah and Thera." He looked uncertainly at Jacob. "I'm not sure they wanted to remember..."

Jacob's jaw dropped slightly as the pieces began to fall into place.

Before he could fully process that particular revelation to its logical conclusion though, a scream filled with sheer terror filtered from the hallway into the cell, causing Sam to bury her head further into Jack's chest and all of the men to turn in the direction of the door.

The first scream was followed quickly by another.

And another.


	7. Chapter 7

After the last scream, an eerie silence descended on the cell. Despite his unease, Jack made good use of the time tending to Sam. He clothed her as best he could and attempted to examine her injuries, all under the watchful eye of Jacob. Though he was relieved to discover that most of her wounds were superficial, he knew that the real damage was most likely psychological, as evidenced by her reluctance to leave his embrace.

Without warning, the sound of a staff blast and still more screaming echoed throughout the underground structure.

Jacob glanced at Daniel, who was standing closest to the door. "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't sound good," Daniel said, looking worried and backing away a bit.

In the far corner of the cell, Sam stirred in Jack's arms. He pulled away from her to examine her face, only to find it covered with tears. Cupping her cheek, he used his thumbs to wipe away the wetness, and she furrowed her brow at him, her confusion apparent.

"Sir?" she asked. Though she was unbelievably relieved to see him, everything was hazy, and her mind felt muddled. When had he found her? Had she been crying? And why was she wearing nothing other than Jack's jacket and a pair of boxer shorts?

"Carter?" Jack grasped her by the shoulders.

"Sam!" Jacob said, having observed the exchange. He crossed the room to stand near his daughter.

"Dad," she replied, still sounding confused. She looked back and forth between Jack and Jacob, trying to remember when they had arrived. Suddenly self conscious, she pulled the jacket tightly around her. "Wha...what happened?"

Daniel, who now had his ear to the door, interrupted. "Ah, guys, we may be in trouble here."

But Jack and Jacob ignored him, their concentration focused solely on Sam. "What do you remember?" Jack asked gently.

"I...Osiris. She was...she was torturing me. With that...stick. I thought she was going to kill me, but then she brought me here. After that, it's just...," she shrugged, "bits and pieces." She shook her head, trying to recall what had happened to her after Osiris had put her in the cell. "I remember a presence. Then a feeling of being cold...and alone." Her next words she spoke quietly and directly to Jack. "I thought I'd never see you again."

Jack stared at Sam, and for a moment it was as though they were the only two people in the room. The pain and loneliness he saw in her eyes threatened to overwhelm him, and he bowed his head while he internally rebuked himself. He never should have run off to Minnesota. He never should have allowed her to leave his house that morning. Hell, he never should have entertained the idea that he could ever live without her, especially not after all that had transpired on P3R-118. And he vowed at that very second that he never would.

He reached up to touch her face, but after a quick glance at Jacob, he thought better of it, falling back on his usual diversionary tactics in an effort to fill the awkward silence.

"Yeah," he said finally, his voice rough. He cleared his throat. "Sorry I didn't have anything else for you to wear." He began carefully buttoning up the jacket she was holding closed around her. Jacob glared at him as his hands reached her chest, and he immediately pulled them away and balled them into fists by his side. "Sorry," he said again.

Sam gave him a small smile and finished buttoning the garment herself. "Yes, well, thanks for the jacket - and the shorts, sir."

"You can thank Daniel for the shorts," Jack replied with a grin. The archeologist had complained mightily that Jack should be the one to give up his underwear until the military man had finally admitted he wasn't wearing any. Of course, the only thing more amusing than Daniel's consternation at having to go commando had been the completely unexpected discovery that it was also the Tok'ra modus operandi.

Sam's eyebrows shot up. "He brought an extra pair?"

Jack winced. "Not exactly..."

"Um, guys?" Daniel tried again. "Far be it for me to intrude..."

"What, Daniel?" Jack demanded, with more frustration in his voice than he intended.

"Something's coming."

Jacob walked to the door to listen for himself but jumped backwards when a staff blast hit the control panel, causing sparks to fly and the wall to glow red hot. The unmistakable sound of the staff weapon being primed for another shot filtered into the cell. Jacob gestured urgently for the others to take cover, and they all backed away from the door, terrified of what might be coming for them.

Another staff blast hit the door, and within seconds a large piece of it was on the ground. As the smoke cleared, the familiar form of their favorite Jaffa could be seen standing in the entry.

"Teal'c!" Daniel exclaimed.

"T, buddy!" Jack added.

Teal'c's expression was stony. "We must hurry."

Daniel crawled through the makeshift exit followed immediately by Jacob. Jack looked closely at Teal'c as he approached the larger man and felt his adrenaline spike when he realized that his friend appeared somewhat unnerved. It was not a sight to which he was accustomed.

"Not that I'm not glad to see you, but how'd you get past all the Jaffa?"

"They have been otherwise occupied, O'Neill." His eyes darted around the cell as if he were searching for something. "We should leave this place as quickly as possible. Something unnatural is here."

Jack turned to Sam, who was by his side. "Can you walk?"

"I think so." Though she was still injured, she realized she actually felt substantially better. "Yes, sir."

Once they were out of the cell, Teal'c handed them zats, and they began to make their way to the ring transporter. Unfortunately, it was on the opposite side of the structure from their current location.

"How did you know to come for us?" Jacob asked Teal'c as they walked as fast as possible through the structure.

He continued to scan the hallway. "I observed a Goa'uld fleet enter orbit. I assumed the worst."

"Pretty much always a safe assumption," mumbled Daniel.

"It's Heru'ur's fleet," Jack said. "Apparently he and Osiris are...friendly."

When they rounded a corner, however, they were met with a horrific scene, and the conversation was cut short. All along the passageway, the dried out husks of what remained of Heru'ur's Jaffa lined the floors, expressions of utter terror still etched on their withered faces. Slowly, the group moved in between the bodies, revulsion warring with curiosity.

"What the hell...?" began Jack, holstering his zat and picking up his P90.

Daniel looked around the hallway. "Call me crazy, but I don't think either Heru'ur or Osiris did this."

"Agreed," said Teal'c. "I have never seen anything like it."

Daniel bent down next to one of the bodies to get a closer look.

"Daniel..." Jack said, his voice a warning.

By then, the archeologist was already reaching out to probe the Jaffa's arm. The moment his hand made contact, though, the entire form disintegrated and turned to dust, and he let out a startled cry. Clumsily, he scrambled backwards and wound up falling on his rear, his hands landing on the body behind him, which also dissolved at his touch.

"I told you not to touch!" Jack yelled, exasperated.

Daniel made a face as he stood and hastily tried to wipe the Jaffa's remains off his hands. "You didn't tell me that!"

"Did too."

"Did not."

"It was implied, Daniel. _Always_."

"That appears to be the same substance that was in Nephthys' jar," Sam said, more in an attempt to break up the argument than anything else.

"Who?" asked Jack.

Daniel sighed. "Nephthys, Jack. You remember I told you about her? She was Osiris' lover - and sister?"

"Right. Sure. Freaky Goa'uld love triangle." Jack waved his hand in the air. "Threesome. Whatever."

"Osiris brought me here to be her host," Sam continued, "but when she opened Nephthys' stasis jar, there was nothing in it but sand. It looked just like that." She pointed to the decimated Jaffa.

From somewhere in the distance, they heard another scream, and all five of them exchanged anxious glances.

"I believe we should continue moving," suggested Teal'c.

Jack could not agree more.

After passing several more dead Jaffa in the dark halls, they finally made their way to the room housing the ring transporter. Jack held up a fist, signaling for them to stop just outside the entry. Slowly, he peeked around the corner, only to see Osiris and Heru'ur hurriedly making preparations to leave, an air of panic about their actions.

As Jack watched, Osiris hit a button, and a Goa'uld voice suddenly came over an internal loudspeaker.

Daniel looked up. "Oh boy," he said.

"What?" asked Jack, spinning around to face his teammate.

"It's a countdown," replied Daniel. "They've set a self destruct."

Jack swore quietly. '"How long?"

"Ah, about ten minutes."

"We need to get to that ring transporter," Jack said, more to himself than the others. But at that moment, he saw a dark form drifting in their direction, effectively cutting them off from the rest of the base. It didn't take long before the others noticed it as well, and Sam had to stifle a gasp.

With only one way to go, Jack made up his mind. "On three," he said, and he began counting down on his fingers. On cue, the entire group rounded the corner into the transporter room, guns and zats blazing.

With flashing eyes, the Goa'uld brought up their hand devices and fired two bursts of energy into the group. Jack and the others dove for cover, and the shots hit the wall behind them, leaving sizable craters. Jack fired his zat at Osiris, but she simply smirked at him from behind her personal shield, the zat fire dissipating harmlessly around the bubble of the energy protecting her. She was just bringing her hand up to fire at him a second time when she stopped suddenly and stared at the ceiling above his head. Jack followed her gaze and felt his gut clench.

Hovering above the group was the same dark, undefined form Jack had seen in the hallway earlier. The temperature in the room dropped perceptibly, as the half physical, half ethereal being entered, radiating an overwhelming sense of malevolence. Everyone in the room was frozen with fear, including Osiris and Heru'ur, both of whom were wild eyed as they watched the thing ooze across the ceiling. Jack instinctively drew closer to Sam, placing himself between her and the dark being.

With a strangled cry, Heru'ur brought his hand device up and took aim at it, but as if reading his intent, the thing targeted him and in a flash flew into his body. The Goa'uld let out a scream of pure terror, his body convulsing violently. Suddenly, Heru'ur's entire form shivered, then collapsed in upon itself, leaving a dried husk, identical to those they had passed in the hall.

"Well that was...disturbing," Jack muttered.

As they watched, the entity, just as dark but significantly more substantial now, floated out of Heru'ur's body and hovered just above it, as if deciding what it should do next.

Seeing a window of opportunity, Osiris made a move to activate the transporter, but before she could complete the task, the thing was upon her.

"No!" she screamed, just before the entity flew into her open mouth.

"Sarah!" Daniel lunged for her, but Teal'c roughly pulled him backwards.

The team watched, horrified, as Osiris stilled then stared directly at them, a dark substance floating across her eyes, turning them completely black.

Jack raised his gun and took aim, but Daniel begged him not to shoot. "Wait, Jack! Please..."

The military man hesitated, then against his better judgment lowered his weapon. He instantly regretted it, as the being turned its black eyes on Sam and, in a voice that resonated even more bizarrely than the usual Goa'uld timbre, spoke. The sound, like fingernails on a chalkboard, sent a chill down Sam's spine, and she had to consciously fight a rising sense of dread and despair.

"You have a fascinating mind, Samantha. Come with me, and together we will unlock your full potential." It glanced in Jack's direction. "Do not dwell on him further. He is insignificant." It faced Sam once again. "You, however, have no idea the power you possess. Together we could rule the universe."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Can't these guys do anything that's not completely over the top?" he said under his breath.

At that second, though, the thing reached out toward Sam, a move that proved to be the last straw for Jack. He jumped in front of his Second and opened fire. But no sooner had the bullets passed through the being, than its wounds closed up and instantly began to heal.

Roaring with fury, the thing sent the full force of its power through the hand device in a shock wave that hit Jack squarely in the chest, sending him flying backwards. He landed hard against the back wall and crumpled onto the floor.

"Jack!" Sam screamed. She ran to his side, along with Daniel, who reached him first and was already kneeling beside him. Sam looked at the thing with pure hatred, but it just gave her a cold smile.

It then turned toward Jacob and Teal'c for the purpose of leaving them with one final, chilling statement: "Tell the others - Anubis has returned!"

And with that, Anubis activated the rings and was instantaneously transported to Heru'ur's hak'tak, leaving the others staring at the empty space, stunned.

From the loudspeakers hidden somewhere in the ceiling, a prerecorded Goa'uld voice warned them that there were only minutes left before the base was destroyed. And at the back of the room, Sam looked at her fellow scientist, a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Daniel?"

But Daniel refused to acknowledge her, either unwilling or unable to speak. Jacob and Teal'c joined them, and they gathered around their fallen leader. Jacob bent down to check Jack's pulse. He removed his fingers from his neck and looked sympathetically at his daughter. With just two words, he brought Sam's world crashing down around her.

"He's dead."


	8. Chapter 8

For Sam it was as though time had slowed to such an imperceptible pace that it had stopped completely. She was aware that her father was shaking her, telling her that they must hurry, and she could see that even Daniel, tears streaming down his face, was trying to rouse her from what she somehow recognized must be a state of shock. But it was as though she were watching the scene unfold from the wrong end of a long tunnel, as though she were merely an observer and not a participant. How could she be? It was inconceivable to her that she could exist in a world that didn't include him.

Just as Teal'c knelt down to pick her up, Sam finally looked up at her father. "No," she said simply.

The group stopped momentarily, waiting to see if she had regained her senses, but when she didn't say anything further, Jacob signaled Teal'c to continue. That was all it took to bring her back into the present.

"No!" she said more forcibly this time. She shot a pointed look at Daniel. "We need to find a sarcophagus."

Daniel jerked as if he'd been struck. "Of course! Osiris was the god of death and rebirth. There's bound to be a sarcophagus around here somewhere."

At that moment, the voice from the loudspeaker shouted at them in Goa'uld. Jacob whipped around to face Daniel. "Even if there is a sarcophagus here, we're out of time."

Sam grabbed her father's arm. "How much time is left?"

"Two minutes, and that's being generous."

"I can do it," she mumbled to herself, as she stood.

But now it was Jacob's turn to grab her. "There's not enough time, Sam. We have to leave now. I'm sorry."

She yanked her arm out of his grasp. "Go ahead if you like, but I am not leaving here without him!"

"Nor am I," said Teal'c, standing and crossing his arms.

"Me either," added Daniel.

Jacob swore under his breath, just as the recorded voice sounded again. This time, though, it didn't stop but continued to count backwards in Goa'uld. By that point, Sam had reached the control panel where Osiris had activated the self destruct earlier and was already studying the display.

"Daniel, I need your help," she said as calmly as possible, trying to keep the rising panic out of her voice.

The archeologist joined her and quickly swept the display with his eyes. "Here," he said, pointing.

Sam didn't need to speak Goa'uld to know that they were only seconds away from the end of the countdown. She hit the button that Daniel had indicated, and a small drawer holding several crystals popped out of the bottom of the console. As she took in the multi-colored display, she hesitated. She knew she needed to switch two of the crystals; she just wasn't certain which two.

"Now or never, Sam," Daniel sang nervously under his breath, as the voice reached the end of the countdown.

Quickly, Sam exchanged the blue and green crystals, and Daniel cringed, apparently in anticipation of the worst. The voice suddenly cut off, and Sam glanced at the ceiling waiting to see if anything else would happen. When nothing did, she let out the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding.

She looked over at Jacob and Teal'c, who also visibly relaxed. "See, I told you – " she began as she was interrupted by another recorded voice.

"Great," muttered Jacob. "It's just been reset. We've bought ourselves another ten minutes, max."

"No," said Sam, examining the crystals. "We should be able to reset it indefinitely. Someone just needs to stay here and swap these crystals every time we reach the end of the countdown."

"You're sure?" Jacob asked, somewhat skeptical.

"Yes," Sam replied definitively, then added quietly, "pretty sure." Daniel looked at her with a slightly startled expression, but Sam ignored it, getting down to business. She addressed the archeologist. "Where would we find a sarcophagus?"

He thought for a moment. "If I were to guess, I'd say Osiris' chambers, though I have no idea where that is."

"I believe I can locate Osiris' chambers, DanielJackson," Teal'c volunteered.

Grateful for the distraction, Sam fell back on her military training, assigning tasks to each member of the group in turn. She decided that she and Teal'c would take Jack to the sarcophagus, while Daniel stayed in the ring room to reset the timer. She purposefully ignored the look the others exchanged at this pronouncement. She knew it would make more sense for her to stay with the self destruct mechanism and send Daniel with Teal'c, but there was no way she was letting Jack out of her sight.

Her final decision was to have her father return to his ship to serve as back up in case they had any trouble transporting from the surface once they had revived Jack, a plan to which he objected mightily. "No." He shook his head. "There's no way I'm leaving you here."

"We'll need someone on the scout ship in case we can't activate the rings on the surface," she explained.

"Absolutely not, Sam. I'd have no way of knowing what's going on down here. You go to the ship. I'm staying."

Sam felt her blood begin to boil. Technically, she couldn't order her father to do anything; not only was he impossibly stubborn, but he also outranked her. She decided it was time to take a different tact, one she didn't use very often. "Please, Dad," she said softly. "I need you to do this for me."

She saw him begin to break and wondered whether Selmak wasn't working on him as well. "Fine," he said finally. "But if anything happens to you..." He turned away briefly, suddenly overcome with uncharacteristic emotion. Sam leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

Their priorities sorted, Sam risked a look at Jack for the first time since her father had told her he was dead. He was so handsome, and she felt a pain lance her heart at the thought that he might be gone forever. There was still so much she had to tell him, and the thought that she would never feel his arms around her again was almost more than she could bear.

Shaking herself, she turned her attention back to the task at hand. She knew that she would be no use to anyone if she allowed herself to wallow in grief.

Halfway through the second countdown, Sam instructed Daniel how to reset the self-destruct, and to everyone's great relief, it worked perfectly. For the first time since she had arrived in Osiris' underground base, she felt something akin to hope. After saying goodbye to her father, Teal'c lifted Jack in a fireman's carry, and the two of them took off into the heart of the structure.

Her optimism was short lived, though, as they finally located Osiris' chambers, only to find no trace of a sarcophagus. The room was huge and covered in gold relief. Great murals in bright colors adorned the walls, and plush furnishings were scattered throughout, including a lavish bed that dominated the center of the space. But nowhere could Sam find anything that remotely resembled a sarcophagus.

Once again trying to repress a rising sense of despair, she radioed Daniel. "It's not here," she told him, her voice shaking a little. "I don't see a sarcophagus anywhere."

"It has to be there," he replied. "It may be hidden. Look for something that symbolizes rebirth."

She looked at Teal'c and shook her head. "I don't know what that would be. There are lots of pictures on the walls..."

"Tell me what they look like."

Sam turned in a circle as she described the paintings to Daniel. "Um, there are a bunch of people dressed Egyptian style, including some with animal heads, and a picture of a man on a throne and a woman with wings and a big painting of a ship filled with more people sailing between a moon and a sun—"

"That's it!" Daniel yelled excitedly. "Each day, Osiris took the souls of the dead from night to day, or death to life, on his barque." He paused for a moment. "Huh. I never thought about it before, but maybe the barque isn't a ship, but a sarcophagus..."

"Daniel!" snapped Sam. She was beginning to appreciate Jack's occasional frustration with the archeologist.

"Look for a button or lever or something like it on the mural."

Sam turned toward the painting, but Teal'c had situated Jack on a chaise and was already examining the wall. Reaching out his hand, he touched the slightly raised eye of Osiris, who was depicted standing at the front of the barque, then depressed it with his finger. Instantly, the wall split down the middle, revealing a large sarcophagus. Its lid slid open smoothly.

"Got it," she said, relieved.

Teal'c picked up Jack and gently laid him inside. Sam let her gaze linger on Jack's face for a moment before giving Teal'c a nod. He hit the button to close the sarcophagus and stood back, his hands clasped behind his back. "Now we wait."

Once again, time seemed to stand still for Sam, as she anxiously waited for the regeneration cycle to end. Teal'c took advantage of the lull to kel'noreem, but aside from occasionally checking in with Daniel, there was little to occupy Sam. She shifted her stance for the hundredth time and let out a long sigh.

"Are you worried, Major Carter?" Teal'c asked without opening his eyes.

She looked up at the Jaffa, startled by his sudden question. "Yes, of course," she answered.

"You care for O'Neill a great deal." This was more statement than question.

Sam looked down at her feet. "Yes," she confirmed quietly.

"As he does for you." Sam snapped her head up only to find that Teal'c's eyes were still closed. He slowly opened one and fixed her with it. "He was most distraught that you declined to accompany him to his cabin."

"Yes, well...I was confused. I didn't know what to do." She shuffled her feet. "Still don't."

Finally, Teal'c turned to look directly at her. "I do not understand."

She sighed again. "I'm scared, I guess." She shook her head. "I mean, I'd be staking everything on this relationship - my career, my...my...everything." She paused as her voice caught, and she did her best to hold onto the tears that threatened to fall. "What if it doesn't work out between us, Teal'c? I mean, I've never had any luck with this sort of thing before. I could be left with nothing..." She trailed off, lost in her thoughts.

Teal'c was quiet for several minutes before he spoke. "No great reward was ever obtained without significant risk, SamanthaCarter. And I have never known you to be a coward."

Sam's jaw fell open slightly, but before she could respond, Daniel's distressed voice came over her radio. "Uh, Sam, Teal'c, I think we have a problem here..."

"What is it, Daniel?" she asked, somewhat thankful for the interruption.

"I can't reset the timer."

Sam frowned. "Just switch the crystals."

"I tried that," Daniel replied, sounding increasingly nervous. "Nothing's happening. The self-destruct just keeps counting down."

"There must be some sort of fail safe," Sam muttered to herself. "How much time is left, Daniel?"

"Uh, about four minutes."

Sam felt her stomach drop. There was no way they'd be able to make it back to the transportation rings in time, even if the sarcophagus had completed its cycle, which it hadn't. She looked over at the contraption and was startled to see that Teal'c had begun to pry the lid open.

She moved quickly to his side and placed her hand on his bicep in a futile effort to stop him. "What are you doing?"

"We must leave."

"But it's not finished, Teal'c," she said, somewhat desperately. "What if he's not fully healed?"

"It is a risk we must take," he replied, and with a grunt, he forced the lid aside.

"Teal'c!" she gasped. Her heart in her throat, she peeked inside to see Jack lying with his eyes closed, in exactly the same position in which they'd left him. "Is he..."

The Jaffa reached inside and felt for a pulse, then lifted him out of the sarcophagus. "He is alive. We must go."

It was as though a huge weight had been lifted off of Sam's shoulders, and with a renewed purpose she followed Teal'c quickly out of the room. "Daniel, get the rings ready," she said into her radio. "We're on our way."

But the archeologist was no longer trying to hide his distress. "You only have two minutes!"

The recorded countdown echoed through the dark hallways as they bolted for the ring room. They were moving as fast as they could, but Sam had done the math. Between the awkwardness of Teal'c carrying Jack and the distance they needed to cover, they were never going to make it.

With less than a hundred yards to their destination, the voice suddenly stopped.

"Prepare yourself, Major Carter," said Teal'c.

In the next instant, they were thrown to the ground as a massive explosion rocked the structure. Scrambling to reach Jack, she helped Teal'c lift him, and with one on either side of the unconscious man, they made a final, mad dash to the ring platform.

More explosions echoed through the base. Debris fell from the ceiling, and the floor began to split apart, making it difficult to navigate the increasingly treacherous space. Somewhere behind them, Sam heard a rumbling sound, and when she glanced behind her, her worst fears were confirmed: a roiling fire was rapidly making its way down the hallway behind them. Just as the flames licked their heels, Sam and Teal'c rounded the entry to the ring room with Jack in tow.

Daniel looked at them wide eyed. "Cutting it a little close, aren't we?" he screamed over the din.

"Let's go!" Sam yelled, as they threw themselves onto the platform.

Daniel hit a button, and the rings rose out of the floor. At the same time, another explosion rocked the room, and large pieces of the ceiling began to fall. In the next instant, they were transported to the surface of the planet along with several smaller pieces of the ceiling that rained down around them and fell into the water at their feet.

No sooner had the rings dropped away than the ground began to tremble. Sam grabbed her radio again. "Dad, we're on the surface. You need to transport us - now!"

"Stand by," came the his terse reply.

The trembling was rapidly turning into shaking, and a rumbling sound was now emanating from somewhere below. They were having a hard time keeping their feet.

"Ah, anytime now, Jacob..." Daniel said nervously into the radio.

Suddenly, the ground fell away beneath them, and Daniel was certain they were dead. A flash surrounded him, and he shut his eyes, waiting for the inevitable. When he opened them again, he found himself standing in the hull of Jacob's ship, surrounded by Sam and Teal'c, who were still holding Jack between them. He looked out of the view screen just in time to see a fiery explosion on the planet's surface.

At that exact moment, Jack began to stir. Groggily, he raised his head and looked back and forth between Sam and Teal'c. "Whadda I miss?"

"Sir!" Sam exclaimed, as she threw her arms around his torso.

If Teal'c hadn't been holding him, he would have fallen over, and though her actions were incongruent with her military address, he really couldn't bring himself to care. He straightened a bit and slowly pulled her into his embrace. "Carter," he whispered into her hair, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"It's good to see you, Jack," Jacob said, and he was surprised to find that he meant it.

Daniel walked toward the view screen to get a closer look at the destruction on the surface. "Any sign of Anubis?"

Jacob shook his head. "It looks like he took Heru'ur's fleet and left the system."

"Should we not pursue him?" asked Teal'c.

Jacob glanced toward the back of the ship to find Jack and Sam still wrapped around each other. Though a large part of him wanted to give chase to the Goa'uld, he knew at least half of SG-1 was in no shape to do so. He placed his hands on the control orb.

"Let's go home."


	9. Chapter 9

The ship was quiet and dark, the dim lights from the console the only illumination in the cabin. Daniel was snoring softly, sitting with his back against the wall, glasses askew. Teal'c sat ramrod straight, legs crossed, hands on his knees, in a deep state of kel'noreem. For his part, Jack had already slept for about 14 hours, and although he was enjoying having Sam snuggled up next to him, he didn't think he could stay in a prone position for one minute longer. Easing away from her, he stood and made his way to the co-pilot's seat at the front of the ship.

Jacob gave him a sideways glance as he sat down beside him. "How're you feeling?"

"Slightly undercooked," Jack deadpanned.

Jacob snorted, but then fell quiet once more.

Selmak gave him a mental nudge. " _Talk to him, Jacob_."

" _Why_?"

" _Like it or not, he's in love with your daughter, and she with him. He needs to know that even though they're going to have some obstacles to overcome, you aren't one of them_."

" _I'm not_?" But Jacob knew he wasn't fooling his symbiote. Selmak was all too aware of how Jacob's estimation of Jack's character had improved substantially over the course of this trip.

He spoke to the younger man without looking at him. "I read your file, you know. After I met you in Washington two years ago. Even then I didn't much care for the way you looked at my daughter - or how she looked at you."

" _This isn't exactly what I had in mind_ ," Selmak chastised.

Jack answered him, unaware of the conversation going on inside his head. "There wasn't anything between us then, Jacob."

Jacob made a noise somewhere between a bark and a laugh. "The hell there wasn't - even if the two of you didn't know it yet." He paused and glanced at him again, then turned his attention back to piloting the ship. "Anyway, after I got to know you a little better I realized you were a good man, despite some of the things I'd read about you, and that you would do everything in your power to protect Sam, including not act on your feelings. So, I came to terms with what I'd learned about your past – not to mention the fact that you're closer to my age than hers." Jack winced.

Jacob continued. "You can imagine how surprised I was when I found out the two of you...I thought maybe I'd misread you; I couldn't figure out what had changed. And then Daniel told me about having your memories erased, and that's when it all came together." Now Jacob turned to face the younger man, and his next words were surprisingly sympathetic. "They made you forget who you were but not what you felt."

Jack looked down at his hands, Jacob's words hitting a little too close to home. "Yeah," he confirmed quietly.

"But here's the part I don't understand - why on Earth is she still reporting to you? There's no way Hammond would allow it if he knew."

Jack sighed and ran his hands over his face. "He doesn't." Jacob raised his eyebrows at that, surprised, but Jack refused to meet his gaze. "We thought we could leave everything behind, pretend that it never happened. And we did, for awhile. But it was too much. Things had gone too far." Jack finally stopped staring at his hands and looked up to address the older man directly. "Now I don't know how to move forward, and we can't seem to get back to where we were before."

Jacob was quiet for awhile before he spoke. "I think you need to accept that there's no going back. Which only leaves one option."

"But how?" asked Jack. "Where do we go from here?"

"Do you love her?"

"Yes," he replied without hesitation.

Jacob shrugged. "Then you'll figure it out." He turned back toward the view screen. "By the way, I don't think I need to tell you this, but if you ever hurt her, Jack, you should know that Selmak has an encyclopedic knowledge of various torture methods dating back at least a thousand years." Jack squirmed a bit, unsure whether he was joking or not.

Sam whimpered in her sleep, drawing the attention of both men. Jacob looked at Jack and inclined his head in the direction of his daughter. "Go."

With a final glance at the older man, Jack got up and made his way over to Sam. He slid down the wall next to her and gathered her in his arms. Jacob watched as she rested her head on his chest and stilled. Satisfied that his daughter was sleeping peacefully, he turned back toward the front of the ship and smiled, along with Selmak.

oOoOoOo

Upon their return to Earth, Jack spent a little more quality time in the SGC infirmary than he had counted on, and though he was loathe to admit it, he understood that Janet had to be sure that he and especially Sam had fully recovered. Fortunately, Hammond had given them another week of leave, and this time Sam readily agreed to accompany him to his cabin. Teal'c, on the other hand, had declined almost immediately.

Jacob graciously offered to give them a ride, and before dropping them off, he firmly shook Jack's hand. It was all the approval the younger man knew he was going to get, but it was enough. Jacob pulled Sam into a bear hug, and she kissed him. "Behave," he said, before activating the rings, though he knew full well that was unlikely to happen.

Jack and Sam walked the short distance to the cabin hand in hand. As they approached, Sam could see that it was everything she thought it would be - a little rough around the edges, but solid and warm, all the things she associated with the man who owned it.

Being spring, it was pleasant during the day and cool at night, so that evening he lit a fire. Sam couldn't help but be reminded of another fire on another planet, a place where there was only the two of them, and they were happy. She smiled. Just like now.

As they settled in, Jack asked her if she wanted anything, and she realized then that she already had everything she'd ever wanted. "No," she replied quietly, "just you," and she looked at him with smoldering eyes that twinkled in the firelight. One look into those eyes, and for Jack, everything else was forgotten. He swept her up in his arms and kissed her face, her lips, her jaw, her neck, all while he moved with her toward the bedroom.

He started out patient and careful and deliberate, aware that she was still recovering and worried about the aftermath of her experience with Osiris. But as her body increasingly responded to his, and she began to give as good as she was getting, he started to lose some of his self control. By then, Sam had abandoned herself to him completely, finally allowing herself to let go, to get lost in everything he was. And as they moved together in a silent communication of a completely different sort, for the first time in her life she truly understood the meaning of the term _making love_.

At the end, they were breathless and sated and spent, and they fell asleep instantly in each others' arms.

oOoOoOo

Sam's eyelids fluttered open as the first rays of the early morning sun filtered in through the small round window over the bed. Feeling the press of a warm body next to hers, she rolled over into his embrace.

"Hey," Jack said softly.

She smiled up at him. "Hi."

"Good to see you still here." He gave her a wry grin.

"Well," she sighed, "we are in the middle-of-nowhere, Minnesota."

"Ah, good point."

Her demeanor suddenly turned serious. "I'm not leaving again, Jack. Not ever."

"Good."

She ran her fingers through his sparse chest hair. "So," she said.

"So," he replied.

She looked up at him again. "So what do we do now?"

He smiled and leaned down to nuzzle her ear. "I can think of a few things..."

"No," she chuckled. "I mean with SG-1."

"Well, I have a few ideas about that, too." He propped himself up on his elbow.

"Oh?" She mirrored his position.

"I spoke with Hammond."

"You did?" Her eyes widened. She had no idea when he'd done that, but it must have been while she was still in the infirmary. Honestly, she wasn't sure how she felt about it. Her rational side knew that he had to find out about them sooner or later; she just wasn't sure she was prepared for it to be so soon after their return.

"He thinks it's about time you had your own team."

She sat up straighter. "He does?"

"Yep. And I agreed with him." He furrowed his brow as he studied the uncertain look on her face. "Why? Was that wrong?"

"No!" she said quickly. "No. It's just...I'll miss you guys." She gave him a small smile.

"Yeah, well, it's not going to be easy on me to trust someone else to watch your six. But if it means that we can be together..."

"Hammond's okay with that?" she asked, worried about his reaction to the revelation that the two military members of his flagship team were...involved.

"He is. Mostly. He just doesn't want us to advertise."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "I can do that," she said, though as the seconds passed, her mood became pensive. Things were changing. It was all for the best, but she couldn't help but feel a little sad that their team was splitting up.

Jack reached over and lifted up her chin so that he could look into her eyes. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah." An idea struck her, and she graced him with a brilliant smile. "I guess any successful relationship involves compromise."

"Absolutely," he confirmed.

"I'm glad you feel that way," she said. She trailed her fingers over his chest once more and looked up at him through lowered lashes. "Because I'm going to request that Teal'c join my team."

"What!" he exclaimed. He hadn't seen that coming. He narrowed his eyes at her and made a mental note to keep close watch on his newest rival team leader.

But Sam just laughed at his response, and he smiled, then captured her lips with his. Soon, her giggles turned into soft moans, as he deepened his kiss and began moving his hands over the length of her body.

She pulled back for just moment. "I love you, Jack."

He cupped her face and brushed her cheek with his thumb. "I love you, too."

It was a long time before either of them spoke again.

The End


End file.
